Jeanette Nolan stars in this production of the Christophers as Dorothy Lynde Dix.
Miss Dix was a 19th century reformer. The child of an alcoholic and frequently missing father and a constantly ill mother, Miss Dix and her two brothers were sent to live with their maternal grandmother. She began teaching at the age of 14, and by the time she was 19, was running her own school. Ill health forced her to close the school,and she became a writer. A trip to St. Croix gave her a close-hand view of slavery and she became an abolitionist. A trip to Europe stimulated further ideas in social reforms, and she began to support better mental institutions in the 1840s. During the Civil War, she was appointed Superintendent of Army Nurses by the Union. She died in 1887 at the age of 85.
This thirty-minute film is well cast, with roles taken by Tom Powers, Walter Kingsford, and a young Dick Sargent. It concentrates on her work for better care for the insane.
